A collaboration is the event of two or more players getting together and writing a chunk of storyline where their respective characters take part. Often enough, you will see character teamups:
* Galen (played by Adam) has adventures with Kate (played by Louisa)--romance ensues.
* Sorrow (played by Robin) finds himself in a scary cave ( :) ) with Jade (played by April).
* Daye (played by Kristen) throws a party. Everyone (except Sam) shows up. BIG complex collab there.
Many times you won't need a collab. You can write for your character alone, posting a solo adventure on the game board. But the goal of this community is not just loner writing, nor is it players mingling with players. Characters' lives merge. In a perfect world, all of our characters storylines will be hopelessly dependent on players taking part in collabs.
As of this writing, I've only done a handful of collaborations. The players who have been here since season one will throw in their two cents about what to expect. They can tell you the unofficial rules of collabing, plus helpful hints on how to make your life easier during the process.
There are a few things to consider:
* Time zones. How do we find the time to meet? It's like dating from Hell.
* Downloading MSN
* Using the LABN chat room, plus creating a chat room.
* Saving. Always save as you write!
* Thoughts on writing for your character, and what Heather so energetically describes as "channeling." Ask her. She'll keep you up for days, heh.
* More!
Those just came to mind. When I first started LABN, I was lost. It took trial and error to get it right. Of course, I'm just starting this thread. I'm hoping I'm not the only one leaving commentary. I'm not equipped.
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setting up a chat
Sid has put most of the basics in this, so I am going to focus more on the "conventions"...
SETTING UP TO CHAT:
In general we maintain 2 chats while doing collaborations. This is for convenience. The first chat is using MSN Chatrooms. There is a link on the front page of LA By Night (and is repeated here).
http://chat.msn.com/chatroom.msnw?rm=La%2520by%2520night
If the room does not exixt, it is okay to create one. Name it "la by night" so that anyone looking to get there quickly can just click the link and zoom right to it.
The second chat is what we call OOC or "Out of Character" chat. We usually do that through MSN Instant messenger. It is where we can go "Ooh!" and "Ah!" without disrupting all the fine writing going on in the MSN chat room.
We also use it for telegraphing changes like "I think that 'Bang! Pow! Zoom!' should replace where I say 'To The MOON, Alice!'" Again, this prevents disruptions of story flow, and gives everyone a copy of major editorial changes.
THE COLLABORATION PROCESS (an example)
There are two ways to do a collaboration. The first style (combat posting) is a lot more abstract, and requires a lot of editing. The second style results in an almost-ready-for-posting transcript. It works by taking turns:
Person one Types:
RALPH: <<<
Person 2 will wait until he is done...
Person one writes his dialog...
RALPH: "Norton, I tell you, I don't know what to do. I been a bus driver for 12 years and I can't stand to sit in that bus one more second!" says Ralph. He took off his hat and wiped his forehead with a rag from his back pocket. He looked distraught.
Person one is done for now so he signales person 2
RALPH: >>>
Person 2 jumps right in...
EDNORTON: <<<
EDNORTON: Ed looked down at Ralphs rear end. It was hanging over the edge of the chair. He looked back at Ralph and chuckled, "I don't think the bus could stand it much longer either, Ralphie!"
Person 1 wants to interject before Person 2 continues. He types...
RALPH: <<<
In the OOC chat he types "HEY!" but he waits...
Person 2 decides to indulge him
EDNORTON: >>>
Person 1 picks it up like it was supposed to coninue from here...
RALPH: <<<
RALPH: Ralph got angry and stood up tossing the chair to the floor. He pointed a finger at Ed, and waged it in his face "You!..You!...You!..." His face reddened as he struggled for a snappy comeback.
RALPH: >>>
Person 1 politely doesn't hog the action, and gives it back to Person 2
EDNORTON: <<<
EDNORTON: "Thats what it's shaped like Ralph, a big ol' 'U'" said Ed. He was on a roll and made a shape in the air with his hands. It was exaggerated large.
EDNORTON: >>>
In the OOC chat, Person 2 types "Piaow" This is short hand for "You are on the spot now."
Person 1 goes ahead and types...
RALPH: <<<
After about 10 minutes of staring at that Person 2 finally asks in OOC, "Are you still there?"
Person 1 OOC says he burned his microwave pizza, had to feed his cat and had a phone call. but then he continues typing at that point
RALPH: "Norton!" he grabed for Ed's vest but Ed was quick and scampered around the tiny kitchen table while Ralph flung chubby fingers at him.
In OOC Person 1 says "That okay? You mind?" (since Person 1 used Person 2's character for effect)
Person 2 says "No Prob. Exactly what I would have done anyway!"
RALPH: Ralph finally gave up after two laps and sat down in the opposite chair. He looked beat. Norton flipped the other chair around and sat in it backwards. "Ed, " said Ralph, "What kind of man am I if I can't give Alice all the things she deserves?"
for the purposes of this illustration, Alice is an NPC. Anyone can use her without asking. Person 1 does just that...
RALPH: Alice walked in at that precise moment, “What do I deserve Ralph?”
RALPH: Ralph panicked, he didn’t know what to say. He had been caught in a rare tender moment. It wasn’t bad enough that he wasn’t able to afford anything nice, but now he had been caught doing mushy stuff. * Now What? *
Note that Person 1 uses ‘*’ to designate thoughts
RALPH: Ralph stood and did his cool confident walk. * This always works * he thought. “Nothing sweety. I was just telling Norton here that you were more than I deserve.”
RALPH: Alice put her hand on her hip and gave him that familiar what-are-you-up-to look, “Well that’s true, but that’s not what I heard you say. You clearly said you ‘can’t give Alice all the things she deserves.’”
person 2 can hardly contain himself…He starts typing “ooh! Oooh!” in the OOC
EDNORTON: <<<
Rather than give him the stage Person 1 decides to set up the punchline
RALPH: Alice looked over at Ralph’s lifelong buddy. The man who would die for Ralph. The man who would go through Hell and bullets to drag his body home. His lodge mate, bowling partner, old buddy, old pal Ed.
RALPH: “Ed, what did he say?” asked Alice.
RALPH: >>>
And I’ll leave the rest for the Honeymoon ;) But you get the idea…
I'm new to collaborations! What's a collab.?
<<<
Thanks, Dave.
I would like to clarify the obvious:
When it's your turn to write, you type a single line consisting of "<<<" to show that it's your turn.
When you're done writing, type a ">>>" to show that it's next person's turn.
But what get's confusing is when there are three people writing. If you forget to type your "<<<" then that's leaving it wide open for someone else to come along a post their bit before yours.
If you intend to write, make it known as soon as possible!
This might still seem confusing to the newcomer. Don't worry. You will be amazed at how nice everyone is around here. They won't call you stupid, and they'll clarify anything you don't understand. If a mental midget like yours truly can write for this site, SO CAN YOU.
On the subject of time zones:
I'm hoping Heather will pipe in soon with a reprint of her famous time zone chart. This will help you calculate the time zones to which the other players belong, thus making it easier when scheduling collaborations. It's easy for, say, Sherlynn and me to collab, because we're in the same state (California). My 7:00 is her 7:00 o'clock.
With Australia, on the other hand, I have to think 17 hours ahead. I might be writing on my Thursday while my writing partner is writing on his or her Friday. It gets confusing. And I'm not even going to describe the horror of scheduling two collabs at once! *shudder* With a little careful planning, you will be able to hook up with the other players. Be patient. We all have jobs and/or school, so everyone must be flexible.
Beware. Collabs can take hours. So be sure you have the time to offer. It's not as bad as it sounds. Though I go into every collab suffering stage-right butterflies, once I get into it, I don't want to stop. Two hours becomes a very short period.
Sometimes collaborations can be handled through email, though this is not the preferred method. But whatever it takes. If you have to send emails back and forth, adding to the story bit by bit, then that's acceptable.
Okay. I'm done. What am I going to do about it? Yup, you guessed it:
>>>
Combat Posting...
Sometimes a lot of action has to take place in a very short peroiod of time. When this becomes neccessary you resort to "combat posting" in which you completely ignore the signalling protocal and just type as you act.
MSN Chat allows you to post an action by typing your action:
"slaps his fist on the stove and then runs red from the pain" then hit ctrl-A
it shows in the chat as:
RALPH slaps his fist on the stove and then runs red from the pain
This allows you to distinguish action from dialog. This will mean that sometimes the action will be out of order, and may take some serious editing once the post is complete. Be sure you have a willing volunteer before you agree to do this.
Here is a sample of a recent collaboration. You will see a lot of names and it will be a little confusing to read the before sample. However vollowing it is an "after editing" and you will see that the action has been distilled into a readable format.
==============Before Editing
Tash_LA : Tash bumps into RV8 while sparring with Jem. RV8 grabs Tash around the neck.
evilgal01 : knocks rv8 off tash
Tash_LA Tash lashes out with a foot to fend off Jem, while struggling against the choke hold RV8 has on her
Victor_Vrithetek grabs a nearby vamp and twists his head around backwards. It takes a few turns (amid the vamp's struggles) but it finally comes off. *poof*
ParasolSmyth1 Grabs RV8
evilgal01 and kicks her in the shin
ParasolSmyth1 Back hands her
WiccaKate_21 : (to RV5) And I've just been itching for a chance to kick some more vampire butt. Guess we both get our wishes tonight.
JessTravers Jem kicks mantheana the moves on and throws a punch into tash's face
evilgal01 : ow!
Tash_LA : (to Parasol and Manth, gasping) Thanks...
NiccoloCicero goes to stake vampire comming after him, ends up grappeling. They stumble in to the store room, crashing down on a table and interupting the banter between Kate and RV5
evilgal01 : The sabaka hasn't got any more mature over how many years!
ParasolSmyth1 : Welcome. Nice ring
WiccaKate_21 RV5 lunges at Kate, she deftly avoids his blow, his fist driving into the wall.
WiccaKate_21 : (To RV5) wow, that's some major lack of co-ordination you have there
Victor_vrithetek Victor Grabs a Vamp with a bearhug and backs it up to Chinaka
Victor_vrithetek : (to Chinaks) An Assist?
Tash_LA almost ducks the punch, catching a glancing blow to the cheek, and responds with a flurry of kicks and punches, knocking the vampiress back into RV10
evilgal01 : (to Tash + parsol) Hey, I don't think any ones a big fan of Jemima round here.
ParasolSmyth1 Chinaka douses it with holy water
ParasolSmyth1 : Jemima. Your name's Jemima?!
NiccoloCicero head butts vampire on top of him, managing to roll out from under it
ParasolSmyth1 laughs wildly
Victor_vrithetek Victor screams and smokes and drops the Vamp
======After Editing....
Victor grabbed a nearby vamp and twisted his head around backwards. It took a few turns but despite the vamp's struggles it finally came off. The vampire disintegrated with a ‘poof’.
Jem kicked Mantheana, then moved on and threw a punch into Tash's face. Mantheana exclaimed, “Ow! The sabaka hasn't got any more mature over how many years?”
Tash almost ducked Jem’s punch, catching a glancing blow to the cheek, and responded with a flurry of kicks and punches, knocking the vampiress back into one of her rearguard.
Mantheana grinned at Tash and Parasol, “Hey, I don't think any vun is a big fan of Jemima ‘round here.”
Parasol stared at Jem, “Jemima? Your name's Jemima?!” She laughed wildly.
Jem scowled, “Hey! I have my fans; they just don't tend to be people who try to kill me every so often.” She punched Parasol.
“No you didn't,” Parasol replied. She smacked Jem back with the heel of her hand.
Galen attempted to stake the vampire coming after him, but they ended up grappling. They stumbled into the storeroom, crashing down on a table and interrupting the banter between Kate and the vampire in there.
Said minion lunged at Kate, who deftly avoided his blow, his fist driving into the wall. Kate marvelled, “Wow, that's some major lack of co-ordination you have there.”
Galen head butted the vampire on top of him, managing to roll out from under it.
Kate used her telekinetic powers to propel her vampire across the room. He hit the far wall with a thud and a moan.
Galen yelled, “For crying out loud, just kill it, Kate!”
The vampire Jess was grappling with finally succumbed to her attack and exploded into dust.
Victor grabbed a vamp in a bear hug and backed it up to Chinaka. “An assist?” he asked her.
Chinaka obliged by dousing it with holy water. Victor screamed and smoked and dropped the vamp, which was also steaming.